"Are you sure you won’t regret it?"
That was a question the referee had asked Alex when Varacius had revealed who was behind all this.
It was because the referee was a demon, and Keryu was the prince of the empire, no matter how useless or famed he was.
The referee didn’t belong to the side that supported Keryu, but as a demon, he couldn’t tolerate seeing the image of a prince brought down like this.
Of course, the referee was just a referee. As soon as his communication device activated again, delivering a new order, he had no choice but to shut up and announce whatever he was told.
"Keryu would be interrogated."
Right now, sitting in the hall of his mansion, Alex was faced with the same question again.
This time, however, the one asking the question wasn’t someone Alex could take lightly.
...........................
The grand hall of Alex’s mansion was bathed in dim, flickering candlelight. The air was heavy and thick with an unspoken tension that neither of the three figures in the room acknowledged outright.
Alex sat with his usual calm demeanor, his blue eyes sharp as they studied the two individuals across him.
One of them, a man, exuded an overwhelming presence despite his seemingly languid posture.
Red-black hair cascaded past his shoulders, his crimson eyes gleaming with amusement that did little to mask the sheer power he wielded. Two jet-black horns adorned his head, a silent testament to his lineage.
It was Anos Voldigod, the Demon Emperor.
Beside him sat a young woman with striking features. She had black hair flowing like silk and piercing purple eyes that held a depth of calculation. It was Eris Ivanovich, Keryu’s sister.
Unlike her father, she had barely spoken a word since arriving, her gaze flitting between the two men as if gauging the undercurrents of their conversation.
There was a long silence.
None of them had said anything from the start and just sat there, staring at each other—that was until Anos moved.
He leaned back slightly, his arms resting casually on the armrests of his chair, and his lips curled into a smirk.
"Are you sure you won’t regret it?" He asked, mirroring the very question Alex had heard from the referee in the Colosseum.
For a moment, silence stretched between them as Alex met the Demon Emperor’s gaze, his expression unreadable. Then, he tilted his head ever so slightly. "Is that supposed to be a threat?"
Anos blinked at that question, glancing at Eris as if wanting to know if he heard it right before...
"Hahahahahaha!" He let out a hearty laugh, the sound reverberating through the hall.
"A threat? No, no, my boy, you wound me." He wiped an imaginary tear from his eye, still grinning. "I’m simply asking a question."
Alex didn’t waver. "I was attacked. I counterattacked. That’s all there is to it. So no, I won’t regret it."
Anos hummed, nodding as if mulling over Alex’s response. "I see, I see..."
Then, picking up the glass of wine on the table, he twirled it, staring at his reflection in the glass.
"Still, Keryu is my son. And as an imperial of the Demon Empire, you should know that we don’t take slights lightly. We tend to be quite... vindictive." His crimson eyes glowed slightly, his smirk deepening. "It might be in your best interest to settle this matter calmly."
Alex exhaled through his nose, his lips quirking into a smirk wider than Anos’s.
"I don’t bother with those who don’t do anything to me," he said evenly. "But once someone crosses me, I don’t back down."
His posture shifted, his right leg draping over the left as he chuckled. "So if Keryu values his well-being, it’d be in his interest not to get on my bad side more than he already has."
For the first time, Anos fell silent, simply studying Alex with an unreadable gaze. The flickering candlelight cast elongated shadows across his face, making it impossible to discern his thoughts.
’Have I been inactive in this world for a long time?’ He wondered as he felt that Alex didn’t fear.
Anos felt that maybe he had been away from the world for too long and that people had forgotten who he was.
But as he turned to look at Eris, whose body seemed to tremble subtly as if understanding the weight of the situation, he shook his head inwardly. ’No. I don’t think that’s it.’
Squinting his eyes, he concluded as he stared at Alex. ’It’s him who’s not normal.’
Then, after a long pause, he merely shrugged. "Well, you’re certainly interesting." He let out a sigh, stretching his arms as if bored. "Let’s move on, shall we?"
The atmosphere shifted as he leaned forward, his expression turning slightly more serious. "I have another question. Do you know anything about Lilia’s disappearance?"
At those words, something in Alex’s demeanor changed.
His golden eyes darkened, his jaw tensed, and an uncharacteristic silence fell upon him. A chilling stillness surrounded him, the air itself seeming to grow heavier. When he finally spoke, his voice was cold, clipped, and devoid of any of the usual amusement he carried. "I don’t."
Anos observed him carefully, searching for any deception. But after a moment, he leaned back, seemingly convinced. "I see." A pause. "Well, if you do find anything, it would be best that you tell me." He let the words linger before standing up. "That’s all from me."
As Alex saw Anos getting up, he closed his eyes, exhaling inwardly, only to hear Sophie’s comment in his head.
[Your acting is getting better.]
Shaking his head, he turned to look at Eris, who had been quiet the entire time, stiffening slightly as her father turned toward her. "I’ll be taking my leave. You can stay if you want," Anos said nonchalantly before, in a mere blink, he was gone—vanishing as if he had never been there at all.
Eris was left alone with Alex, her expression unreadable, yet something about her eyes hinted at a storm raging beneath the surface.
She hadn’t spoken once since arriving, but now that they were alone, it seemed she had something to say.
Silence stretched between them after Anos’s departure, the flickering candlelight casting shifting shadows across the hall.
Eris sat across from Alex; the weight of her father’s presence had vanished, but something else lingered in the air—something much more delicate yet equally potent.
Then, finally, she spoke.
"Who are you?"
Her voice was quiet yet steady, and her gaze locked onto his with an intensity that betrayed the conflict within her.
It wasn’t a simple question. She already knew who he was—Alex, the man who had stood against her brother, the one who had challenged the natural order of things.
But her question went beyond mere identity. It was deeper, more personal.
At her words, Alex simply smiled.
"I’m just someone who doesn’t want you to live a life of suffering."
Eris stilled at his response. Her fingers twitched slightly atop the table, but she said nothing, her expression betraying a flicker of something—hesitation, perhaps? Doubt? She didn’t know, and that only unsettled her more.
Meanwhile, Alex was aware of the effect his words had.
’It worked,’ he mused inwardly.
[Of course it did.] Sophie’s voice chimed in his mind, laced with dry amusement. [You did spend quite a fortune on it, after all. And to find one that would actually affect Eris, who specializes in mind magic, was even more difficult.]
Alex didn’t respond to Sophie, but he knew she was right.
The scent of a dream.
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It was a rare and insidious tool, one that works not through direct manipulation but through the subconscious.
Once inhaled, it imprinted the image of the person seen at that moment onto the user’s mind, ensuring that they would dream of them every night. And worse—every time they recalled the scent, that person’s face would come to mind, creating an inescapable cycle of memory and emotion.
It was an underhanded tactic, but Alex had never been one to shy away from such methods when necessary.
In the end, he was just trying to save her. He was trying to give her a path that would be better for her life and one where she wouldn’t have to die by his hands.
Eris had been close to Keryu for a long time—so much so that she had claimed to love him.
If Alex wanted to pull her away from that orbit, it wouldn’t be through mere words or actions alone.
If he were to use words, he would turn into someone she would want to avoid. The influence of protagonists was always like that.
To affect Eris and make her listen to him, he needed something deeper, something that would make her seek him out, even without fully understanding why.
And now, here she was.
Unaware of the true nature of what had been done to her, yet undeniably drawn to him.
She shifted slightly in her seat, her fingers clenching and unclenching as if waging an internal war. "I don’t understand you," she admitted, her voice softer now, almost contemplative.
Alex leaned back, his golden eyes glinting under the dim light. "You don’t have to."
That only made her frown more.
Her emotions were tangled, her thoughts a storm she couldn’t quite navigate. Yet, despite that, she didn’t look away from him. If anything, her curiosity had only grown stronger.
She had come here to understand why she felt this pull toward him and why the thought of him had taken root in her mind since their last encounter.
And Alex? He knew exactly why.
But he had no intention of telling her just yet.
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